Jenkins visits Guantanamo, says closing 'unnecessary'

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As she toured the prison Monday at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Kansas Congresswoman Lynn Jenkins said President Barack Obama should put forward a plan before closing the detention facility.

"I am hopeful he will put aside politics and take into account the potential risks of moving these detainees and the huge sum of taxpayer dollars it will take to either build a new facility or majorly upgrade an existing one," said Jenkins, a Republican, in a statement.

The state's congressional delegation has been opposed to housing any of the detainees at the military prison in northeastern Kansas. Obama has vowed to close the detention facility by January 2010, but the administration has not named a specific site or sites where the detainees will be transferred.

Jenkins toured Guantanamo with a House delegation, and she called it a "state-of-the-art detention facility" so large that it would "be physically impossible to recreate" a similar one at Fort Leavenworth.

"Closing Guantanamo Bay is unnecessary and doing it without a plan to relocate the detainees is irresponsible," Jenkins said. "And I will continue my fight to keep suspected terrorists from being transferred to Fort Leavenworth."

The two are seeking the seat of Sen. Sam Brownback, who will run for governor. The poll has Moran, of Hays, ahead 40 percent to 38 percent over Tiahrt, of Goddard, with 22 percent of voters still undecided. Conservatives favored Tiahrt in the poll, while more moderates chose Moran.

Surprisingly, I tend to agree with Lynn. It seems the issue is not where the detainees should go but that there are people in Gauntanamo who have not had fair trials and possible poor living conditions. Why can't we leave the prisoners there, see that the conditions are up to par and ensure that all who are there need to be there? To move them all from a relatively new facility makes no sense. Although I am an Obama supporter, I disagree with the closure. It was a good campaign promise becasue it sounded good to those Democrats who didn't give it much thought. However, in the end it will solve very little and cost us a lot of money.

It is a very good camp. some of us prefer law. Hidden camps with no trials for special populations aren't really that admired in history. Jenkins should not assume that all Kansan's are so scared that we would fear to put suspected terrorist on trial or to let them use a federal prison to house them. The GOP seem to think it is more important to be safe than to be Americans. That safety is an illusion. We need to stand, not to cower.

What are republicans and some Democrats so afraid of? Are they scared that the detainees might escape? Or are they scared that their friends might come all the way to America to break 'em out? What are they so scared of?

"I am hopeful he will put aside politics and take into account the potential risks of moving these detainees and the huge sum of taxpayer dollars it will take to either build a new facility or majorly upgrade an existing one," said Jenkins, a Republican, in a statement.

Doesn't sound a bit like fear to me. Sounds more like a money issue. The expense to move all those people from Cuba to the middle of the US and the guards and airplanes and pilots, etc it would take would be enormous. It seems to me that she is questioning whether it's necessary to spend more taxpayer dollars on something we don't need. The budget is already in enough of a mess.